Art therapy assessment and intervention in adolescent homicide

New York, Los Angeles, Jonesboro, Littleton. One has only to turn on the te levision or open the newspaper to be faced with another incident of adolesc ent homicide. As clinicians, we may not work directly with adolescents who have committed murder, but there are a great many of us who will encounter and work with potential murderers. What can we, as art therapists, hope to offer? How can we be attuned to the warning signs and cries for help before a homicide is attempted? The most recent events in Littleton, so tragic an d devastating, challenge us to find ways to intervene before any more rando m acts of violence are committed by and against the children of this nation . This article will discuss the use of art therapy as a possible indicator of progressive homicidal ideation in work with one adolescent girl.